Kai, in that moment, decided that she liked Prosciutto. With his sharp suit and his harsh eyes, on the surface he reminded Kai of men she had seen many times before during her travels. Hard men with dead hearts, who had no ties and no love for anything, not even themselves. But Kai knew better. She saw it in Prosciutto's face when she spoke: a kind of pity. A slight softness for her, however small, buried deep beneath his cool expression. She smiled wider.
She also liked that he spoke using funny words that Kai had never heard used before. "Cleaning...?" she said, more to herself than Prosciutto. She screwed up her face as if thinking very hard. "Cleaning...oh!" Kai made a little hop when she realized his meaning. "Yes, cleaning. Tidying up those dirty nasty things in the streets. Like the ones who try to steal Kai's things when she sleeps."
Her voice trailed off near the end of her sentence, as if she was suddenly distracted by something. She walked a long while in silence, her head down, eyes veiled by her hair and the brim of her hat.
"Yes...cleaning like that, Kai," Prosciutto said with a slight laugh, continuing the rest of the way in silence...
...It was roughly forty-five minutes or so before the two arrived at the apartment building that La Squadra called its home. There was nothing fancy about it in the slightest, and it was in fact quite the opposite. The stucco and stone walls were mis-colored and cracked. There were homeless and drugged out miscreants laying about the stairway. Entering didn't even remotely change this theme.
The halls were small and dingy, lights dim. Prosciutto made his way to the ancient steam elevator and punched in a few numbers. He motioned silently for Kai to follow...
Kai wrinkled her nose and ducked her head into the lift, peering around carefully and giving it a small sniff. "Is it safe..." she asked, "...Sky High?" She held out her hand and her insect companion reappeared with a glittering flick. It moved its head about from side to side before clacking its wings in what Prosciutto could only assume was approval. She looked up at Prosciutto and gave him a reassuring nod. "He says yes," she explained with a wink and stepped inside.
The metal floor was cold and slightly sticky on the bottoms of her feet, and Kai shuddered visibly beside Prosciutto in the small, cramped space.
Prosciutto chuckled again, closing the shutter once they were both inside of the lift box. Machinery shuddered to life and steam shot from the valves above the box. A second or so of this and the lift ascended upwards slowly. Several floors passed in varying degrees of disarray, some even closed until the apartments could be made livable again. Finally, on the seventh floor, the machine stopped.
Prosciutto stepped out and reached in his pocket for a set of keys, jingling as he lifted them out. He made a few turns as the windows made basic attempts at lighting the hallway. And finally, he stopped upon one of the larger apartments the building had to offer. Apartment 7303.
He unlocked and opened the door, revealing the living space that Prosciutto desperately tried to keep tidy in spite of it's wanting state of ratty-ness. He did not stop in the living room and moved immediately to the room at the end of the hall, knocking before entering.
Risotto was startled by the knock, to say the least. He got up from where he'd been lying and went to answer the door. He winced at the light that came in, sighing. He looked over Kai with a cold glance, surprised at how young she was, but didn't say anything. He stepped out of the door and past the pair.
"First things first, a test," he said moving into the squalid kitchen to grab a knife.
Kai watched cautiously as Risotto moved into the kitchen -- one hand outstretched and searching for...what? Her expression grew dark when Risotto finally found what he was looking for. He turned towards her with knife in hand.
"Sky High," she whispered, dropping down into low crouch. Again, there was the click of beetle's wings and a hard hissing noise. Kai growled deep in her throat as her Stand reared its head and suddenly the room hummed with the sound of a thousand bees. A dozen rod-shaped objects dissolved out of the air around her, darting quickly back and forth on immeasurably swift wings. "We can play if you want to..." she said dangerously, her eyes quickly moving back and forth between Risotto and Prosciutto.
"Stand down, he's not going to fight you. Not here at least, we can't afford to repair the damn place," Prosciutto remarked with a roll of the eyes. He leaned against the hallway wall and gave Risotto a look.
"Is that really necessary? I proved her Stand powers were developed...she can see Grateful Dead," he said casually.
"Prosciutto is right. I have no intention of fighting you. Stand down," he said flatly, shooting a brief glare at his comrade for the last remark. "Yes, it is necessary."
Risotto rolled up his sleeve to his elbow, then turned his arm so his wrist was facing up. He stabbed the knife into his forearm, dragging it down to form a sizable gash. It was, of course, bleeding profusely. Small, strange beings were visible in his blood, making even stranger noises.
"This...is Metallica," he said with a bit of a strain in his voice. The gash started to slowly pull together again. "I assume you can see them?"
Kai peered at the wound with large, round eyes. It was like sewing together two pieces of cloth, only the cloth was flesh and the little things in Risotto's blood were making terrible, wet noises. She dropped both her hands down and both Sky High and the rods disappeared with a small woosh. Carefully, she approached Risotto, her mouth a very small perfect "o" of astonishment. It was both amazing and terrible, but Kai couldn't help but be drawn to it.
"Is that..." she said quietly. "Are they..." She struggled to remember the word Prosciutto had used to describe their powers. "...your Stand?" She looked towards Prosciutto for approval.
"Yes," Prosciutto confirmed, standing straight and looking at Kai directly. Now for the real bomb...
"Metallica lives in his blood. It gives him the power to manipulate iron through magnetism. This has numerous effects...one of which is camouflage. You see, this is our leader...Rissoto Nero. The man Nariko described to you as 'the man in the shiny suit'. She called him that because of his stand," Prosciutto explained, turning to Risotto.
"This is Kai. She is Nariko's protige. Her stand is called Sky High...I'm not quite certain what it does yet, but those...things would have been an indication if any."
Risotto actually liked not having to describe the powers of his Stand for once. He looked at Kai with cold eyes, looking her over.
"So...Nariko trained you? Are you prepared to do terrible things in the name of money?" His tone was clinical, as if these were the most normal questions in the world to be asking. He'd been in this business for ten years now and talking to new recruits like this was par for the course.
Kai straightened herself up as Risotto spoke to her. His dead eyes, his detachment, they repulsed Kai and attracted her, and for the first time in years, she felt the need to impress. She fixed him with a serious as a face as she could muster. "Kai helped Nariko before she went away. Helped with the 'cleaning'." She her resolve faltered slightly and she looked towards Prosciutto again before looking back at Risotto. She cleared her throat and stamped her foot on the floor hard in the hopes of sounding determined. "We will do this. We promised Nariko. We promised."
Prosciutto was quick to protest. "Don't be so quick to answer that...there's no turning back if you agree to join us. Nariko knew this...," he stopped himself before going further, lest he upset the girl...why he was doing so was beyond him. Normally he didn't care to be cold. But she was just a girl.
"Kai...we are not good men. Nariko was far more human than Risotto and I will ever be. Being around us...are you absolutely certain that is what you want?"
Risotto raised an eyebrow at his comrade's sudden insistence. He smirked slightly, putting a hand on his hip.
"She seems set on it and I don't think you warning her is going to do any good," he said with a shrug before turning to address Kai, a little more warmth in his gaze, "but Prosciutto is right. We are not good men, period. And...I imagine this apartment is better than the street, so that's a moot point."
"Nariko thought you were good," Kai said insistently. "Otherwise, she wouldn't send Kai here." Carefully, she approached Risotto, slowly inching forward, her feet making a soft padding noise on the floor. She moved her hand over the thigh to draw attention to the large knife strapped there. "Kai's not made out of glass," she whispered. "She was made hard, same as you."
Prosciutto sighed as he internally surrendered his attempts to reason with Kai. Her heart was set...In Nariko's stead, she would now follow them. Trading one mentor for another. He hated seeing someone so young in this line of work...it was disgusting...but it couldn't be helped. It was all she knew...
She also liked that he spoke using funny words that Kai had never heard used before. "Cleaning...?" she said, more to herself than Prosciutto. She screwed up her face as if thinking very hard. "Cleaning...oh!" Kai made a little hop when she realized his meaning. "Yes, cleaning. Tidying up those dirty nasty things in the streets. Like the ones who try to steal Kai's things when she sleeps."
Her voice trailed off near the end of her sentence, as if she was suddenly distracted by something. She walked a long while in silence, her head down, eyes veiled by her hair and the brim of her hat.
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...It was roughly forty-five minutes or so before the two arrived at the apartment building that La Squadra called its home. There was nothing fancy about it in the slightest, and it was in fact quite the opposite. The stucco and stone walls were mis-colored and cracked. There were homeless and drugged out miscreants laying about the stairway. Entering didn't even remotely change this theme.
The halls were small and dingy, lights dim. Prosciutto made his way to the ancient steam elevator and punched in a few numbers. He motioned silently for Kai to follow...
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The metal floor was cold and slightly sticky on the bottoms of her feet, and Kai shuddered visibly beside Prosciutto in the small, cramped space.
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Prosciutto stepped out and reached in his pocket for a set of keys, jingling as he lifted them out. He made a few turns as the windows made basic attempts at lighting the hallway. And finally, he stopped upon one of the larger apartments the building had to offer. Apartment 7303.
He unlocked and opened the door, revealing the living space that Prosciutto desperately tried to keep tidy in spite of it's wanting state of ratty-ness. He did not stop in the living room and moved immediately to the room at the end of the hall, knocking before entering.
"Risotto...this is her..."
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"First things first, a test," he said moving into the squalid kitchen to grab a knife.
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"Sky High," she whispered, dropping down into low crouch. Again, there was the click of beetle's wings and a hard hissing noise. Kai growled deep in her throat as her Stand reared its head and suddenly the room hummed with the sound of a thousand bees. A dozen rod-shaped objects dissolved out of the air around her, darting quickly back and forth on immeasurably swift wings. "We can play if you want to..." she said dangerously, her eyes quickly moving back and forth between Risotto and Prosciutto.
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"Is that really necessary? I proved her Stand powers were developed...she can see Grateful Dead," he said casually.
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Risotto rolled up his sleeve to his elbow, then turned his arm so his wrist was facing up. He stabbed the knife into his forearm, dragging it down to form a sizable gash. It was, of course, bleeding profusely. Small, strange beings were visible in his blood, making even stranger noises.
"This...is Metallica," he said with a bit of a strain in his voice. The gash started to slowly pull together again. "I assume you can see them?"
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"Is that..." she said quietly. "Are they..." She struggled to remember the word Prosciutto had used to describe their powers. "...your Stand?" She looked towards Prosciutto for approval.
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"Metallica lives in his blood. It gives him the power to manipulate iron through magnetism. This has numerous effects...one of which is camouflage. You see, this is our leader...Rissoto Nero. The man Nariko described to you as 'the man in the shiny suit'. She called him that because of his stand," Prosciutto explained, turning to Risotto.
"This is Kai. She is Nariko's protige. Her stand is called Sky High...I'm not quite certain what it does yet, but those...things would have been an indication if any."
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"So...Nariko trained you? Are you prepared to do terrible things in the name of money?" His tone was clinical, as if these were the most normal questions in the world to be asking. He'd been in this business for ten years now and talking to new recruits like this was par for the course.
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"Kai...we are not good men. Nariko was far more human than Risotto and I will ever be. Being around us...are you absolutely certain that is what you want?"
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"She seems set on it and I don't think you warning her is going to do any good," he said with a shrug before turning to address Kai, a little more warmth in his gaze, "but Prosciutto is right. We are not good men, period. And...I imagine this apartment is better than the street, so that's a moot point."
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"Very well...Risotto, it's your call."
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